hydrometer reading during fermentation

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GrizzlyRed

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Hi All,
I read this forum daily now and kudos to all of you who have patience with us newbies and our somewhat newbie questions at times.
Anyway, I brewed on saturday and my fermentation seemed to be going strong for about the first 2 days and it has tailed off quite a bit (if not stopped). My question is: is there a proper procedure for taking a mid fermentation hydrometer reading? I know that I should sanitize whatever goes in there, but do I have to be extra quick about it? If it is done, do I have to rack right away or can I wait until the weekend?
Any tips?

Thanks
Grizz
 
Sanitize whatever you use to take the sample. It doesn't have to be too quick, but don't leave the fermentor uncovered all day. If it's done, then you can wait. No need to rush things, I usually leave mine in the fermentor for around 3 weeks before bottling. Leaving it after it is done fermenting, lets the yeast clean up any by-products they may have produced.
 
When in doubt, wait. Beer is great for lazy folks with fluid time management, like me. :D

I usually leave my beer on primary for at least two weeks before I think about disturbing it to take readings. I just kegged an Oktoberfest Ale hybrid that has been in primary for a month untouched.

Leaving the beer on yeast for a while allows the yeast to clean up the byproducts of fermentation that you really don't want in your finished beer. After the yeast finish fermenting sugars they look for anything else they can process and that gets rid of alot of phenols and other misc flavors in your brew.
 
Thanks guys, I didn't know that yeast starts eating other things that are not sugar if it sits long enough. I now know another reason to be lazy and let my beer sit longer!
 
mmb said:
When in doubt, wait. Beer is great for lazy folks with fluid time management, like me. :D

I usually leave my beer on primary for at least two weeks before I think about disturbing it to take readings. I just kegged an Oktoberfest Ale hybrid that has been in primary for a month untouched.

Leaving the beer on yeast for a while allows the yeast to clean up the byproducts of fermentation that you really don't want in your finished beer. After the yeast finish fermenting sugars they look for anything else they can process and that gets rid of alot of phenols and other misc flavors in your brew.
Click to expand...

I hear conflicting things about this and continue to be confused.

Some say to leave in fermentor for 7+days. Others say to transfer to a secondary sometime under 7 days (or when fermentation slows)

I just did a secondary for the first time our of the 6 beers I have brewed. Dont know the results yet of course...
 
Kungpaodog said:
Thanks guys, I didn't know that yeast starts eating other things that are not sugar if it sits long enough. I now know another reason to be lazy and let my beer sit longer!
Click to expand...

If you hunt through the yeast mfg websites you will see the term "diacetyl rest" used which applies even to ales. The yeast will clean up metabolic byproducts that have weird flavors more quickly in the primary than if you rack too soon. How much of a rest you will benefit from depends on the health of the yeast, how many you pitched, aeration level, ferm temp, and strain. The practice of leaving it on the yeast will help you most if you don't pitch a starter, or don't have great temp control. In any case I use a 2 week minimum.
 
oberonsd73 said:
I hear conflicting things about this and continue to be confused.

Some say to leave in fermentor for 7+days. Others say to transfer to a secondary sometime under 7 days (or when fermentation slows)

I just did a secondary for the first time our of the 6 beers I have brewed. Dont know the results yet of course...
Click to expand...

Secondary Fermentor is a bit of a misnomer. Think of it more as a Bright Tank for clearing and aging the beer. Taking the beer off the yeast cake increases the amount of time needed to wait while the yeast cleans up fermentation just by way of reduced cell counts in contact with the beer.

For something that you don't have to bulk age it's perfectly acceptable to leave the beer on a yeast cake for an extended period of time and skip the secondary.
 

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